2013 Corvallis Half Marathon Recap and Results

The 2013 Corvallis Half Marathon was held Sunday April 14 at 9:30
AM. I was running pretty late that
morning, and only arrived 30 minutes prior to the start of the race. This didn't leave me much time to park, get
my packet, and get in a line for the bathroom so I was feeling a little panicky.

It turns out 30 minutes was plenty of time to
do all of these things, for this race.
There was plenty of parking, packet pickup was simple, and the lines
were very short. Even the lines for the
bathroom moved fast.

The race started right outside of Reser Stadium. It was a pretty casual start line, in that
there were no pacing signs providing guidance on where to line up. This didn't bother me, but I did overhear
several groups of runners wonder about it. I was feeling pretty tired, so I found what
looked like the middle of the pack and waited only a few minutes before the
race started.

I hadn't looked at the course ahead of time, so I really had
no idea what the route would be like: where it would take us, or what the
elevation was like. This actually made
the run pretty fun and I liked the surprises.
I am not sure I've run a race where the miles just zipped by so quickly.

The first two miles were mainly on the OSU
campus, with lots of enthusiastic spectators.
After the first few miles we headed out to a quiet road, past some
pretty green fields, eventually turning onto a bike path for some more lovely
scenery. We ran on the bike path for a
couple miles, and then headed back onto the roads through some neighborhoods
with many groups of cheering spectators.

We ended up back onto the campus heading towards the finish line, which
was on the 50 yard line inside Reser Stadium.
Finisher's names were being announced as they came in, and while at
bigger races this is pretty common, there is something extra neat about it when
you hear it inside a stadium.

One thing that I found unusual about this course is all the
turns – there were a lot of them. If you are looking for a PR it might be harder
to get on this course because there are so many turns. On the other hand, it's also a very flat
course with well-organized aid stations.
I'd include it my top five favorite half courses.

I mentioned I was feeling pretty tired at the start of the
race. Well by the time I finished - I
was feeling close to terrible. I
attended this event alone and had over an hour drive home, so as a result I
didn't stay long at the finish line, or even spend time investigating the food
and beverage selections – which I almost never skip. I took enough time out to guzzle some water
and get a big giant slice of Great Harvest Bread on the way out (yum), but then
I left for home. I'd love to run this
one next year, and, feel well enough to hang around for a beer.